'Eidola' references an early intromission theory of vision, that all things emit tiny versions of themselves into our eyes. That theory competed at the time with the emission theory, that the eyes themselves emitted light, which emerged from the eyes and sent back to the mind what was seen. In this piece we see through eyes that emit an infrared light to which the raw film is insensitive while touching the camera's retina with an external light which it can 'see'. We move from the un-lensed eye along the film path (optical nerve) into the magazine containing the film in the process of its exposure (the mind). As we do so there is a growing lapse between the performed light and the moment we see it in the video because we are traveling further from the 'eye' (memory).
- Created by
- Peter Miller
- Origin
- US